CCISOs are certified in the knowledge of and experience in the following CCISO Domains:
CCISO Course Details CCISOs are certified in the knowledge of and experience in the following CCISO Domains:
Domain 1: Governance
Qualifying areas under Domain 1 include (but are not limited to) the following:
- Define, implement, manage and maintain an information security governance program that includes leadership, organizational structures and processes.
- Align information security governance framework with organizational goals and governance, i.e., leadership style, philosophy, values, standards and policies.
- Establish information security management structure.
- Establish a framework for information security governance monitoring (considering cost/benefits analyses of controls and ROI).
- Understand standards, procedures, directives, policies, regulations, and legal issues that affect the information security program.
- Understand the enterprise information security compliance program and manage the compliance team.
- Analyze all the external laws, regulations, standards, and best practices applicable to the organization.
- Understand the various provisions of the laws that affect the organizational security such as Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act [HIPAA], Federal Information Security
- Management Act [FISMA], Clinger-Cohen Act, Privacy Act, Sarbanes-Oxley, etc.
- Be familiar with the different standards such as ISO 27000 series, Federal Information Processing Standards [FIPS].
- Understand the federal and organization specific published documents to manage operations in a computing environment.
- Assess the major enterprise risk factors for compliance.
- Coordinate the application of information security strategies, plans, policies, and procedures to reduce regulatory risk.
- Understand the importance of regulatory information security organizations and appropriate industry groups, forums, and stakeholders.
- Understand the information security changes, trends, and best practices.
- Manage enterprise compliance program controls.
- Understand the information security compliance process and procedures.
- Compile, analyze, and report compliance programs.
- Understand the compliance auditing and certification programs.
Follow organizational ethics.
Domain 2: Security Risk Management, Controls, & Audit Management
Qualifying areas under Domain 2 include (but are not limited to) the following:
Information Security Management Controls:
- Identify the organization’s operational process and objectives as well as risk tolerance level.
- Design information systems controls in alignment with the operational needs and goals and conduct testing prior to implementation to ensure effectiveness and efficiency.
- Identify and select the resources required to effectively implement and maintain information systems controls. Such resources can include human capital, information, infrastructure, and architecture (e.g., platforms, operating systems, networks, databases, applications).
- Supervise the information systems control process to ensure timely implementation in accordance with the outlined budget and scope, and communicate progress to stakeholders.
- Design and implement information systems controls to mitigate risk. Monitor and document the information systems control performance in meeting organizational objectives by identifying and measuring metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs).
- Design and conduct testing of information security controls to ensure effectiveness, discover deficiencies and ensure alignment with organization’s policies, standards and procedures.
- Design and implement processes to appropriately remediate deficiencies and evaluate problem management practices to ensure that errors are recorded, analyzed and resolved in a timely manner.
- Assess and implement tools and techniques to automate information systems control processes.
- Produce information systems control status reports to ensure that the processes for information systems operations, maintenance and support meet the organization’s strategies and objectives, and share with relevant stakeholders to support executive decision-making.
Auditing Management
- Understand the IT audit process and be familiar with IT audit standards.
- Apply information systems audit principles, skills and techniques in reviewing and testing information systems technology and applications to design and implement a thorough risk-based IT audit strategy.
- Execute the audit process in accordance with established standards and interpret results against defined criteria to ensure that the information systems are protected, controlled and effective in supporting organization’s objectives.
- Effectively evaluate audit results, weighing the relevancy, accuracy, and perspective of conclusions against the accumulated audit evidence.
- Assess the exposures resulting from ineffective or missing control practices and formulate a practical and cost-effective plan to improve those areas.
- Develop an IT audit documentation process and share reports with relevant stakeholders as the basis for decision-making.
- Ensure that the necessary changes based on the audit findings are effectively implemented in a timely manner.
Domain 3: Security Program Management & Operations
Qualifying areas under Domain 3 include (but are not limited to) the following:
- For each information systems project develop a clear project scope statement in alignment with organizational objectives.
- Define activities needed to successfully execute the information systems program, estimate activity duration, and develop a schedule and staffing plan.
- Develop, manage and monitor the information systems program budget, estimate and control costs of individual projects.
- Identify, negotiate, acquire and manage the resources needed for successful design and implementation of the information systems program (e.g., people, infrastructure, and architecture).
- Acquire, develop and manage information security project team.
- Assign clear information security personnel job functions and provide continuous training to ensure effective performance and accountability.
- Direct information security personnel and establish communications, and team activities, between the information systems team and other security-related personnel (e.g., technical support, incident management, security engineering).
- Resolve personnel and teamwork issues within time, cost, and quality constraints.
- Identify, negotiate and manage vendor agreement and communication.
- Participate with vendors and stakeholders to review/assess recommended solutions; identify incompatibilities, challenges, or issues with proposed solutions.
- Evaluate the project management practices and controls to determine whether business requirements are achieved in a cost-effective manner while managing risks to the organization.
- Develop a plan to continuously measure the effectiveness of the information systems projects to ensure optimal system performance.
- Identify stakeholders, manage stakeholders’ expectations and communicate effectively to report progress and performance.
- Ensure that necessary changes and improvements to the information systems processes are implemented as required.
Domain 4: Information Security Core Concepts
Qualifying areas under Domain 4 include (but are not limited to) the following:
Access Control
- Identify the criteria for mandatory and discretionary access control, understand the different factors that help in implementation of access controls and design an access control plan.
- Implement and manage an access control plan in alignment with the basic principles that govern the access control systems such as need-to-know.
- Identify different access control systems such as ID cards and biometrics.
- Understand the importance of warning banners for implementing access rules.
- Develop procedures to ensure system users are aware of their IA responsibilities before granting access to the information systems.